The present invention relates to a boat trailer and especially to a boat trailer having an extending tongue mechanism for use in launching or loading a boat onto the boat trailer.
As any boat enthusiast knows who trails his boat to a ramp or shore for launching, there are severe limitations to the conventional boat trailers which prevent the enthusiast from launching or retrieving his boat in shallow water or at low tide or in the event that his boat has a deep keel, such as, for example, in the case of sailboats which are provided with relatively deep fixed keels. While these adverse conditions are not always present when the boater wishes to enjoy the pleasures afforded by boating or sailing, they nevertheless may limit his full use of his or her boat.
There have been attempts in the prior art to minimize the loss of full use of boats for the operator by arranging boat trailer tongues with extension devices which permit the operator to elongate the tongue so that the vehicle towing the trailer need not drive his vehicle too close to or into the water's edge, and yet be able to move the trailer further out into the water thereby avoiding inadvertent scraping of the bottom of the launch site by his boat keel.
Another disadvantage with some of the conventional tongue and extension mechanisms is that these extensions are integrated into and are a part of the tongue itself, and thereby become too expensive for the average boater. These arrangements require that those boaters who presently own and operate conventional boat trailers must discard their boat trailer and purchase a new one in the event that they need the same only occasionally. In any event, the trailers of the prior art require an expensive apparatus that is not necessarily utilized for all boating opportunities.
Prior art boat trailer structures include an extension device in U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,611 to Smith et al. which is a dedicated piece of structure which is integrally incorporated into the boat trailer tongue. The same disadvantage is also generally found with the trailer hitch arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,573 to Neitzey, Jr.
Examples of other telescoping trailers may be seen in the U.S. patents to Englehardt et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,944,835; and to Neitzey, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,573; and in the prior art patent to Kelley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,494; and in the patents to Lusk, U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,684; and Williams, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,032,353; and Moody, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,986; and Thurman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,336; and Walters, U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,346; and Sprague, U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,161; and Pierce, U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,990; and Foster, U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,266; and Grice, U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,177.
The present invention distinguishes from these prior patents by being a boat trailer having an extending tongue which is easily added to or adapted to an existing boat trailer which simplifies the locking and unlocking of the telescoping arm which telescopes on roller brackets having two boat tongues, one extending relative to the other in parallel fashion.